Iran's main focus is deterrence, war or talks come next: IRGC official

A senior Iranian military commander says the main strategy of the Islamic Republic amid the ongoing confrontation with the United States is to create maximum deterrence, and not merely to engage in renewed military conflict or hold talks with the enemy.

Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi, who serves as a senior advisor to the Commander-in-Chief of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), made the remarks in an interview with Al-Mayadeen news channel published on Monday. 

Naqdi said, however, that Iran is mulling a more offensive phase of military confrontation with the US and the Israeli regime some six months into the war.

"What we have done so far has been a conventional war, and we have not yet entered into an asymmetric war; asymmetric war means war on Wall Street, in Manhattan, and in any place and at any time."

"Most incumbent (Iranian) commanders today lean toward and prefer offensive thinking."

Naqdi said Iran still has control of over 90% of its missile stockpiles despite US-Israeli attacks in March and April.

He said all weapons production facilities damaged in the recent war have been rebuilt in very secure locations and are now operating using new and advanced technologies with higher production rates.

The IRGC commander said that Iran's only "weak point" during the recent US-Israeli aggression was that it had built some of its weapons factories and production sites in known places and above ground.

Naqdi said Iran was confident of its victory against the US and Israel in the recent war, but did not expect the victory to be achieved with such ease.

He described the US Army as "hollow and fragile" and called it a "paper tiger”.

"The entire world saw that (US) aircraft carriers stopped at a distance of a thousand kilometers from the strait [of Hormuz] and were unable to move."

Trump profiteering from war

Naqdi said the decisions made by US President Donald Trump in the ongoing confrontation with Iran are solely made based on personal interests and the interests of companies and institutions affiliated with him.

He said Trump adjusts the course of the war in a way that, on one hand, generates profit in the stock market, and on the other hand, enables economic exploitation for circles close to him in the oil sector.

The commander said US support for the Israeli regime was vital in the recent aggression on Iran, adding that if Washington cuts its support for Israel, the regime would never be able to resist against Iran.

He said the Israeli regime's military heavily relies on airstrikes and bombing operations, and that its ground forces have little capability without the support of these strikes.

Naqdi said the US and Israel have failed in their efforts to create a rift between Iran and the resistance groups in the region.

"They failed to create such a rift; rather, our relations (with resistance groups) have become much stronger."

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